Researching A Film Poster

This poster is an advertisement for the film 'Orphan'. The genre of the film is clear from the image, as it is a shocking image of a young girl staring sinisterly directly at the camera. This entices the audience as it is attention grabbing as it feels like someone is looking at you. The child's eyes are darkened, which suggests that she is an evil character as if you can't see someone eyes it is hard to read their expressions and emotions, which suggests she is hiding something. It also isolates her character from other people, as it is not ususal to have black eyes. It is also more shocking as it is a child, which are usually associated with innocence and purity, but from this image we interpret the child as corrupted and can anticipate something bad to happen. This also fits in with the genre of horror as it subverts the 'norm' in order to create fear within the audience. The mise-en-scene of the girl indicates a school child, which reinforces her young age and her expected innocence. The hair is in pigtails with a centre parting, which also emphasises her innocence and youth as her hair is tied back practically and she has no makeup. Her pale skin also contrasts with her dark hair and eyes, which indicates a conflict between good and evil as these colours connote good and evil forces.



The text of the title of the film 'Orphan' uses a font, which is reflective of childrens writing, but can also resemble a scratch, which has connotations of trying to escape and being trapped. This helps to reflect the genre of horror and also reinforces the childs age, which is used to create horror by subverting the audiences expectations of a young child. In the title all of the letters are printed in capital letters, except the letter 'R'. This can indicate corruption, as the form of print is disrupted, which also helps to reinforce the genre of horror. The caption above the image anchors the image, as it reveals to the audience that something is wrong with the girl on the image, which is already suggested to us through the text and image. The caption is printed in capital letters and in bright white lettering, which helps it to stand out, and is placed above the girls head which is important for the audience to notice in a glance the genre of the movie and the story. The white lettering also creates a level of synergy between the caption and the title, which helps to give more information on the main character. This also creates a focus on the image, as the text encloses aorund the image. Another colour repeated is red, which is seen on the scarf on the child and then again at the bottom of the poster in a small caption, 'can you keep a seret'. The repetition of the colours help to show the conflict within the film, as red connotes evil and blood and white connotes purity and good. You could interpret this as a reflection of the different layers within this character and an inner conflict or a general conflict within the film. This caption involves the audience further as it uses a pronoun of 'you' and a rhetorical question. This will make the media consumer think about the film and give them a want to find out more about the film. It also gives the audience a release date, which is emphasised in red to make the audience remember the release date.